


Behind the Mask

by BuggedOut



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged up characters, Dialogue Heavy, F/M, Fluff, Marinette thinking about life is me thinking about life, existential thoughts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-15
Updated: 2019-08-15
Packaged: 2020-08-20 20:15:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20233723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuggedOut/pseuds/BuggedOut
Summary: That AU where two people are dating and they’re both superheroes but neither one of them knows that the other is a superhero and so they have to lie to each other about why they’re always coming home bruised and beaten up.





	Behind the Mask

Marinette groaned as she trudged into her apartment, dropping her duffel bag on the ground with a heavy thud and kicking off her shoes. The lamp was on in the living room and a covered tray of dinner was on the breakfast bar. The tray made the dark haired young woman smile as she stepped softly across the hardwood floor.

The covering on the tray was lifted off to reveal a colorful array of food. There was green bean and shallot salad in a bowl off to the side and sitting next to it was a bowl of consommé. A small plate of salmon was on the other side of the tray and in the middle was the main course, pieces of pork smothered in a light gravy and seasoned to perfection. If she knew who put this dish together, and she most certainly did, there would also be a small cup of sorbet in the freezer for her.

The food was all still deliciously warm so Marinette sat down at the counter and started with the soup, moved to the fish, the pork and the salad, finishing with the sorbet last. She looked at the clock, to discover that it had only taken her 20 minutes to eat everything and she didn’t even feel full. Pushing away the guilt that she would have felt if she didn’t regularly burn carbs by swinging around Paris, Marinette rinsed the dishes off and placed them in the sink carefully.

Marinette stepped down the hall next into the bathroom, stripping down as she walked across the cold, tile floor to the waterfall shower stall. The stream from the ceiling was warm and a relief to feel against her sore skin. The temptation to sit down on the shower floor was strong but she resisted.

Soon her shower was over and Marinette dressed in her pajamas, an oversized t-shirt and Ladybug print panties. (They’d been a gag gift from Alya.) She trudged into the bedroom and slipped quietly onto her side of the bed, trying her best not to disturb the person on the other side. It was useless though, because as soon as the bedspring creaked, Adrien was turning over, a cute, drowsy frown on his face.

“Marinette? Did you just get home?”

“Yes, honey,” Marinette whispered as she climbs the rest of the way into bed, making as much noise as she could since Adrien was awake.

“Was martial arts hard today,” Adrien asked as he wraps an arm around Marinette’s waist. The young woman flinches from the contact and Adrien retracts his arm.

“Sorry! It must’ve been bad if you’re like this,” Adrien says, guilt lacing his voice heavily.

“No, no! I’m fine, I promise. I took a hot shower so I’ll be right as rain in the morning,” Marinette reassured nervously.

The excuse that she gave Adrien whenever she was out late fighting Akumatized victims was that she was taking martial arts to get more in touch with her Chinese heritage. Not to mention, Marinette added on one night at dinner, that Adrien wasn’t always around to protect her so it would be a good way to learn to defend herself! Marinette certainly didn’t like lying to Adrien about her whereabouts but he could NEVER know about Ladybug. She’d been able to keep her secret since she was 14 and she would continue to until she was no longer Ladybug.

Marinette wouldn’t know what to do if Adrien found out she was Ladybug. He had escaped from his fathers manipulative grasp to come and live with Marinette because his father was a bastard. How would he feel knowing that Marinette, his main support system, lied about her biggest secret?

“What are you thinking about, love? You’re restless,” Adrien mumbled into the collar of his t-shirt that Marinette had stolen.

“Uh, I’m worried about the shop! It hasn’t been doing well so I’m concerned about how we’re going to be able to pay bills this month.”

“Love, you shouldn’t. You know that my modeling covers plenty of the bills. I know you don’t like it when I pay for the month but I still think of it as buying my forgiveness for not seeing your crush on me all through high school.”

Marinette groaned and rubbed a hand through her boyfriend’s hair. 

“I know, I know,” Marinette said softly, her bluebell eyes trained on the ceiling.

The two of them soon fell asleep soundly, Adrien curled up with his head on Marinette’s chest.

******

Marinette’s phone buzzed on the nightstand and she let out a frustrated growl. It seemed only a few minutes had gone by that she’d crawled into bed but the light coming in through the crack in the curtains said otherwise.

A delicate hand swiped the phone from the nightstand and squinted eyes revealed that it was Alya calling! Marinette swiped accept without thinking and a burst of noise came through the speakers, making Marinette drop her phone onto the soft duvet on the bed.

“Hey girl! How you been,” Alya’s static ridden voice chimed through the phone.

“Good, good! Where are you? What time is it,” Marinette said groggily.

“I’m in the Big Apple! New York City, baby! Can you believe it? I’ve never seen so much activity after midnight.”

“It’s past midnight there,” Marinette squealed as a question, looking at the clock to see it was six a.m.

“Yeah! It’s one a.m right now! Nino and I got out of a show around 11:30 so we’ve just been hanging around the crowds. Look at this place!”

Alya had switched her phone camera around then and showed Marinette the scenery. The neon lights were a startling white until the camera became used to the colors and Marinette was instantly dazzled by everything.

The crowd was busy and moving constantly, like the crashing waves of the ocean that Alya had also shown her when she traveled to California. There were costumed performers from movies that she recognized in passing, like Spider-Man and Superman. There were also food trucks and vendors yelling into the already loud body of people, trying to convince the people to buy their food.

“It’s amazing,” Marientte cried, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

“Isn’t it just?! Ugh I wish you could come with me but I know how important the studio and the shop are to you.”

“I wish I could come too Alya, but we’ll see each other next week and you can tell me absolutely everything. No holding back, okay?”

“Got it, girl,” Alya said with a wink. “I gotta go, Nino just got some Halal and I’m so excited to try it! Love you, bye!”

“Love you too!”

Marinette dropped her phone on the bed and groaned into her hands. She wasn’t groaning because of Alya but because talking to Alya made Marinette think of her own success.

Alya had discovered a passion after starting the LadyBlog and she’d pursued a career in film studies and videography. Once they’d graduated high school, she kept consistently with her social media’s, branching out from not only LadyBug but to fashion, food and music. She’d graduated with a degree of film studies, an Instagram following of 4.7 million and 10 million YouTube subscribers. It was safe to say that her future was pretty secure. And with an internationally loved DJ boyfriend by her side, the world was certainly her oyster.

Marinette wasn’t jealous of the life her best friend lived, with all the traveling and getting recognized every few minutes, but she certainly wished for the same level of success that Alya had. Marinette still lived in Paris and while it was a big and bustling city itself, it felt small to Marinette. Of course it would when you’d grown up playing in the streets and then transitioning to swinging around every day saving them. 

Marinette’s fashion designs hadn’t even spread out of Paris yet. She still worked in the studio space in her and Adrien’s apartment. After she finished each piece of clothing, she took them to her rather dinky shop that was tucked away off a side street that had been purchased with a deposit from her loving parents. Marinette hadn’t asked for it but her mother must have seen her scoping out that particular place.

Even if her clothing was still mostly unknown, Marinette did have her network. She had an online store that people bought from, the entire site made by her still close friend, Max. Rose, Juleka, Milene, and Alix all wore Marinette’s clothes and made sure to hand out business cards whenever possible. Alya always wore Marinette’s specially designed clothes for her and linked her store down in her description of every video. Once again, they were never prompted by Marinette herself to do this. They just loved her enough that they would do it if their own volition.

After all these thoughts had run through her head, Marinette had come to the conclusion, as she did almost every morning, that she was quite happy where she was. She was only twenty-five, after all. She had plenty of her life to live so she spent time now living it peacefully.

“Marinette, you should really get going. You don’t want to be late to open early on Saturday like you usually are!”

Marinette flung herself out of bed with a shout as she tumbled to the floor. Not wasting any time, she scrambled off the floor and into the walk in closet. 

“You’re so right, Tikki! How could I have forgotten early opening!”

Tikki settled herself on Marinette’s head as the dark haired young woman shuffled through her clothes. The weekend was always a casual affair in the store, so her favorite pair of jeans, a soft t-shirt and a colorful shawl would be good for the day. Marinette didn’t bother putting her hair up in a bun like she usually preferred for work, instead letting it wave around her face and down to her mid-back. She’d gone to bed with wet hair last night, so her locks had dried wavy.

Scarfing down a quick breakfast of toast with jam and coffee, Marinette slides out the door with Tikki trailing quickly behind her. The two made their way to the shop in record time, as their first customer had walked up to the door just as Marinette had unlocked it.

“Hello! Welcome to Love Couture.”

The customer walked in promptly, her back straight and dinner plate sized sunglasses perched on her petite nose that was high in the air. The blonde walked over to the rack and began shifting through roughly. Marinette managed to clamp her lips together as she readied her checkout station for the day.

“Is there a dressing room to try things on,” the girl asked in a snooty, obnoxiously familiar voice.

“Of course,” Marinette said through gritted teeth, leading Chloé Bourgeois into a fitting room.

As she walked away; Marinette cursed her luck. Of course it would be Chloé that came to ruin a rather nice day. She hadn’t really done anything yet but Marinette kept her guard up either way. Chloé exited the dressing room and came to the counter, dropping the pretty dress on it.

“Marinette?! Is that you,” Chloé said shocked.

“Yes, Chloé, it is me. How have you been?”

“Oh, well, you know. I’ve been traveling all over the world for my job. I’ve been to Milan and London more times than I can count.”

“That’s great,” Marinette said through gritted teeth. “Will the dress be all for you?”

“Yes, that’s it.”

Marinette rung up the dress and folded it carefully in tissue paper, sliding it in a paper bag and handing it off to Chloé. Chloé left with a haughty thanks and Marinette wished she could bang her head on the faux marble counter.

“Tikki, why is everyone I know traveling around the world while I’m stuck here in Paris at this job where people come in more often to ask for directions than buy clothes?”

“Marinette,” Tikki chastised. “I know you love your job here and you wouldn’t trade it for the world. The people around you are on their own life journeys and you’re on yours. Just because you’re not leaving the country doesn’t mean you’re not on the right track in life. You have a wonderful apartment, a steady job and most importantly, you have Adrien!”

Marinette squished her cheek against the counter and looked at her kwami. She was floating, a washed out reflection pictured on the white surface below her. Tikki’s eyes held wisdom that Marinette could only dream of but the certainty of them made Marinette feel a bit better. A chime at the door made Marinette sit up. It was Adrien!

“Adrien, what are you doing here? Don’t you have a shoot?”

The blond young man walked through the door, his hair tousled from the breeze that was trailing through the streets and his clothes comfortable looking and soft. Marinette’s favorite hoodie of his to steal was encasing his body.

“Photographer got sick so I’m free for the rest of the day. I figured that I would come here and help you.”

Marinette’s heart warmed at the sentiment. Adrien had always supported Marinette’s dream, even when they were back in high school and had become better friends. When they’d gotten together finally, he’d encouraged her to pursue her goals, comforting her over a bad grade in one of her classes or nudging her along whenever she got art block. He truly was the perfect boyfriend.

Adrien stepped behind the counter, dropped a kiss on Marinette’s head and slipped into the back to put on a crisp white shirt that she kept at the store for him. More than once, he’d come over to “help” and they’d end up getting frisky in the back room so it was better for the both of them to just keep clothes on hand. Soon he entered from the back once again, buttoning up his shirt.

“You just missed it,” Marinette said casually, fighting to keep her face neutral. “Chloé was in here a few minutes ago.”

Shooting a glance to Adrien, Marinette let out a giggle. His face was scrunched cutely in disgust at the mention of their former classmate.

“Oh no, I’m so disappointed,” Adrien said in possibly the fakest sad voice ever. Marinette’s giggles evolved into full on laughs and they only got louder when Adrien began poking and digging his fingers into her sides.

After the dust settled, the two began working together. They folded clothes, dusted shelves and helped the customers who came in. Some were regulars that Marinette knew by name, some were wayward souls who had stopped in and others were the regular foot traffic tourists, lost and looking for directions. Marinette’s English had definitely improved once she’d opened the shop.

Adrien had gone out to get lunch for the both of them when there was a loud crash and the sounds of screaming, running people past the shop. Marinette ran to the big display windows at the front of the shop and gasped when she saw a gigantic black mass circling through and up around the city. A frown marred her face and she flipped the sign on the door before jogging back into the storage room.

“Tikki, spots on!”

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first Miraculous Ladybug fanfic but not my first time writing fanfic. I hope you enjoy! I certainly enjoy writing. This story will not contain spoilers for season 3, as I have not seen all the episodes for season 3. I only watch Miraculous on Netflix.


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